There were men among them with grizzled beards, and many who
had counted thirty, thirty-five, and forty years.
They had, I
believe, devoted themselves with a true spirit of patriotism. No
doubt each had some ulterior hope as to himself, as has every
mortal patriot. Regulus, when he returned hopeless to Carthage,
trusted that some Horace would tell his story. Each of these men
from Minnesota looked probably forward to his reward; but the
reward desired was of a high class.
The first great misery to be endured by these regiments will be the
military lesson of obedience which they must learn before they can
be of any service. It always seemed to me, when I came near them,
that they had not as yet recognized the necessary austerity of an
officer's duty. Their idea of a captain was the stage idea of a
leader of dramatic banditti - a man to be followed and obeyed as a
leader, but to be obeyed with that free and easy obedience which is
accorded to the reigning chief of the forty thieves. "Waal,
captain," I have heard a private say to his officer, as he sat on
one seat in a railway car, with his feet upon the back of another.
And the captain has looked as though he did not like it. The
captain did not like it; but the poor private was being fast
carried to that destiny which he would like still less.
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